A central element of your business is communication. You have to communicate with the personnel in your office, of course, but just as important is the communication with your clients. If they’re calling you and not being able to reach anybody, they may get frustrated and take their business elsewhere.

Make sure you have the tools in place to communicate effectively and efficiently with your clientele. Two possible tools you might consider include live phone answering service and automated phone answering services. Here are some of the differences between the two and some of the pros and cons as well.

Live Phone Answering

With live phone answering services, your phones are answered by live professionals who can take all the phone calls that you might otherwise miss. This can take the form of afterhours call routing or answering services. It usually helps customers and clientele feel like they’re valued no matter what time it is.

Automated Phone Answering

Automated phone answering services use machines to take messages but the primary drawback is that they don’t incorporate live professionals answering the calls. This is usually a lower cost service but when making your choice, it would be wise to make it based on the value received and not just the cost alone.

Making the Choice

Whichever service you choose to use for your business, either one will help manage your call volume while you’re away and route messages to the appropriate mailboxes for you and your staff to respond to during regular business hours. There are pros and cons to each method in terms of cost and features. Your decision should be based on the needs of your business and the types of calls you’re expecting to receive after hours.

Having the right tools such as live voice answering service to make communication with your customers and clients easier is essential to a well-functioning business. Be sure you have the right tools in place to ensure customer loyalty and retention as part of your long-term business plan.